A psychosocial educational programme for caregivers of people diagnosed with bipolar disorder

Abstract

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic, recurrent, serious illness that occurs in 1 % of people globally. Patients might become psychotic, suicidal and sometimes violent. They often need to be hospitalised, even against their will because they may have no insight. Patients may have a comorbid condition such as substance abuse or a personality disorder. They are frequently unable to fulfil their assigned roles of spouse, breadwinner, parent or adult child. Caregivers of patients diagnosed with BD are also affected by the illness and the associated stigma. It becomes very difficult for them when they have to take over the responsibilities and roles of the patient. The nature of this impact on the social functioning of the caregivers, understood from an ecological systems perspective, is relevant for social work in the mental health care field. Discovering more about this impact and developing an intervention to curb it therefore formed the rationale for this study. The integrated biopsychosocial model, within an ecological systems perspective, is being used at the psychiatric institution where the researcher works. This approach therefore also served as the point of departure from which this research was conducted. A mixed methods research approach was utilised to provide a comprehensive analysis of the research problem. The proposed study fell into the category of applied research, due to its aim of designing a programme to assist caregivers of people diagnosed with BD. The researcher directed the study according to Rothman and Thomas’s (1994) intervention design and development model (D&D), using qualitative and quantitative methods. After the analysis of the qualitative data a unique psychosocial educational programme, the SEE-SAW programme, was developed and then implemented. The concept of equilibrium versus disequilibrium in the system is central; the researcher’s programme therefore strove towards better equilibrium within the system of patient and caregiver. From the conclusions it is apparent that the caregiver of the BD patient is exposed to a wide spectrum of needs and challenges, but that interventions such as the SEE-SAW programme may be very helpful.